Best Kept Secrets

“Wanna go ridin’?” It’s amazing what can develop from three small words. Since it is late November, we know we won’t travel too far from home. This time of year the days are short; then start cooling almost as fast as they feel warm enough to ride. During the season one tends to travel far flung and visit places only distance riding can bless you with. This day we will loop around our neck of the woods.

Andy wants to take me to a covered bridge not too far off that he stumbled upon recently. Dave likes the idea and has a few others in the general area we can visit as well. Along the route to our first stop we see a couple of other riders up ahead. They fork right and we fork left and loop around to the bridge. We find the two riders there before we are. I guess we’ve taken the scenic route.

Andy has a chat with the riders while I’m snapping photos. He tells us these guys are visiting covered bridges too. Off they go, and we are on our way shortly as well. We bump into them at the next bridge and the next. We start to have short conversations with them. At what we think is the last bridge in the area, we have a more extensive chat. One pulls a book out about covered bridges in New England and points to one not far from where we are. Even Dave, whose stomping grounds we are in, did not know of its existence. It is our last bridge of the day. In all we’ve visited five covered bridges I have never seen before; right in my own back yard.

The sun is heading for the horizon and we head back from whence we came, but before we take the final leg, I want to visit Cathedral of the Pines. This beautiful and sacred spot was devastated by last December’s ice storm. I have not paid a visit since then, so we make it our last stop of the day. It’s a quiet place that lends itself to meditation, the appreciation for natural beauty, and wonder at what our Creator has fashioned for our enjoyment.

We arrive home with the setting sun and we find ourselves quiet. I think about our forefathers building these bridges, toiling the earth and scraping out a living from this hard granite soil. I feel this day has imprinted on my soul the memory of strong Yankee work ethic and love of God and nature in the beauty of the bridges and the views from Cathedral of the Pines. One need not travel far flung to see the wonders of the world. Some of the best kept secrets are right outside your door.